The prevention of transferring infectious diseases is a major and ongoing concern in hospitals and similar environments where care and treatments are provided to those that suffer from any disease process. In the healthcare industry, it is an accepted fact that good hand hygiene is of paramount importance in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. There is substantial data to support the fact that infectious diseases are transmitted after routine activities involving direct contact between healthcare workers and patients and then direct contact between the same healthcare workers and other patients before the healthcare workers have sanitized or washed their hands. By the same token, transmission of infectious diseases may also take place via indirect contact by touching contaminated surfaces or clothing, as well as wheelchairs and bed rails used to transport patients.
As a result of the transmission of infectious diseases at hospitals, a significant percentage of patients admitted to the facility develop hospital-acquired infections (HAI) that are unrelated to their initial reason for admission. This adds a further strain upon, and causes an expenditure of resources necessary to treat, these patients. Even more troublesome is the fact that thousands of these patients who acquire infections at hospitals die each year.
To help solve the problem, many healthcare facilities have instituted policies and practices that encourage healthcare workers to practice good hygiene and wash their hands. However, compliance with these policies is well below par. Even when objective monitoring and/or direct observation is instituted by a facility utilizing, for example, a nurse manager or infection control practitioners, reliability and compliance remains less than optimal. Therefore, a system is needed that can increase compliance with good hygiene policies.